“So, let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never really be completed about a world we can never really understand.” — Phil Graham, US newspaperman,1963.
If newspapers are the first rough draft of history the world should be rendered more understandable, and the rough draft corrected for errors and falsifications when books are subsequently written about controversial moments in history.
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With a recent study by the Human Sciences Research Council having found that public confidence in the South African Police Services (SAPS) is at an all-time low of 27%, the eight-year long SAPS investigation into the killing of Senzo Meyiwa bears close scrutiny.
It took six years before five suspects were arrested and charged. However, when the trial finally starts on 11 April 2022 it will be the Minister of Police Bheki Cele who will be on trial in the court of public opinion.
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A whistleblower Babita Deokoran was brutally gunned down outside her complex in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg on 23 August 2021 shortly after dropping her 16 year old daughter at school.
She was among the Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU’s) witnesses concerning its investigations into contentious multimillion-rand Covid19 personal protective equipment tenders in the Gauteng Health Department.
A special wreath-laying ceremony was held on Sunday 5th September 2021 at the murder site. The event was organised by Bikers for Whistleblowers, a spontaneous civil society movement led by long time activist for justice and truth @Ali Gule.
This is the revised text of the tribute, offered to encourage her family, friends and other whistleblowers who may feel vulnerable because of the brutal nature of the hit.
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Note from the author. The day before my 65th birthday on 21 August I received this unexpected and unintended birthday gift. It was an unsolicited review by Graeme Addison of my first published book The Promise of Justice. The gods of social media had deigned to connect Graham and me through FaceBook about a year ago. His posts give FaceBook a FaceLift, because he writes with both elegant form and - with real life experience to back things up- potent content.
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An Australian mining magnate has been dealt a bruising legal smackdown by the South African legal system which he sought to ‘weaponise’, seemingly to bully and silence lawyers and environmental activists. The landmark legal case is set to shape future laws and tame intimidatory legal tactics by corporations, known as SLAPP suits.
Australian mining company chief Mark Victor Caruso will be nursing a bruised ego and legal black eye today after Western Cape High Court deputy judge president Patricia Goliath ruled strongly against him and his company in the preliminary rounds of a protracted legal case in which he has claimed at least R14.5-million in damages for “defamation”.
Add a commentJohn Clarke hopes to write the wrongs of the world, informed by his experience as a social worker and theologian, to actualise fundamental human rights and satisfy fundamental human needs. He has lived in the urbanised concentration of Johannesburg, but has worked mainly in the rural reaches of the Wild Coast for the past decade. From having paid a fortune in toll fees he believes he has earned the right to be critical of Sanral and other extractive institutions, and has not held back while supporting Sustaining the Wild Coast (www.swc.org.za), the Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute (www.safcei.org.za) and the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (www.outa.co.za), in various ways.
